The follow-up results of a six-year study provide important new evidence that drug abuse prevention programs conducted in school classrooms can affect student substance use. In a large-scale study involving nearly 6,000 students from 56 schools in New York State, students who received a skills-based prevention program in junior high school were found to be less likely at the end of high school to have used tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. The study was conducted by researchers at Cornell University Medical College's Institute for Prevention Research. The prevention program, called Life Skills Training, taught students self-management skills and general social skills as well as information and skills for resisting pro-drug use influences.
According to the Institute, researchers have been searching for effective prevention programs for over two decades now. The prevention program that could actually produce measurable reductions in drug use behavior has been elusive. Prevention approaches that relied on teaching factual information about the dangers of drug use have consistently been shown to be ineffective. Prevention programs that teach students how to resist social influences to use drugs have produced short-term reductions in cigarette smoking and, to a lesser extent, alcohol and marijuana use. Several long-term follow-up studies have raised questions about the ability for these approaches to produce lasting reductions in drug use.
Prevention programs should teach a variety of general life skills for helping adolescents deal with the challenges of adolescent life. These include self-improvement skills such as goal setting and self-reinforcement, making decisions and solving problems, thinking critically and analyzing media messages, coping with anxiety, communicating effectively, meeting people and making friends, and assertiveness.
To be effective a prevention program must be properly implemented. Because there are many competing demands on the school schedule, it is sometimes difficult to teach drug abuse prevention programs in their entirety. However, studies show that there is a direct relationship between how much of the prevention program is implemented and its effectiveness. If prevention programs are only partially implemented, they are not likely to reduce drug use or drug use risk. Similarly, changing a prevention program known to be effective by modifying program components or adding new ones which have not yet been tested can render the prevention program ineffective.
Drug abuse prevention programs must be taught at least throughout junior high school. Prevention programs that are only one year long and do not contain two or more years of developmental sessions are not likely to produce lasting reductions in drug use. In fact, evaluations of prevention programs not including ongoing education have shown that initial reductions in drug use decrease after about a year and disappear totally after about two or three years.
Finally, to have maximum effectiveness, professional development should be obtained whenever possible. The prevention program tested in the Cornell study was effective whether teachers received a formal training workshop and ongoing consultation and support or only received a training videotape.
This study was undertaken by the Institute for Prevention Research, Department of Public Health, Cornell University Medical College. The data in this article come from this study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Midwest Regional Center or the U.S. Department of Education or any other agency of the U.S. government.
Copyright © 1995:
Midwest Regional Center for
Drug-Free Schools & Communities
North Central
Regional Educational Laboratory
Contact:info@ncrel.org
Posted on March 27, 1995
URL: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/sa/4-1study.htm